Post Montana Fever
by tunnelvisioned
Summary: Set after 13x16 (japril the sequel). April gets sick after her and Jackson's trip to Montana and wants to tough it out by herself, but Jackson has other plans. One shot.


**A/N:** _Hey guys. So here's little something that I couldn't stop thinking about and had to write down. Knowing we probably won't get any answers about what happens right after Montana, I needed something to fill in this gap for myself and that's what I'm sharing with you! It's a one shot, as you can tell from the summary, scared to promise to take it further as I have a multi chapter fic that I haven't continued/finished yet. If you read that one and hoped for a quick continuation, I'm truly sorry for disappointing you and I hope I can redeem myself soon! xx p.s. thanks to insideimfeelindirty for beta-ing another story for me, you're the best! Without further ado, I hope you will enjoy this one!_

* * *

Since April and Harriet's move to Jackson's house, their routine has been very consistent. Wanting to be with their daughter as much as possible, they've tried to synchronise their schedules so that at least a couple of days a week they would both wake her up in the morning, take her to the day care together and leave with her to go home. It became more difficult to do this when they had their cold war caused by the Minnick feud, but being the good parents they were, they followed through with their routine anyway.

And now, a couple of days have passed since their trip to Montana and their decision to end up in bed together again. The routine hasn't changed but of course everything felt different now. They both weren't ready to confront what happened between them, and though there was no regret this time, they had a long way to go to figure out what do they both want.

Jackson woke up and as usual got up to say good morning to his daughter. Normally he would meet April in the hallway making her way to the nursery too, but today he entered Harriet's room alone, which was strange.

He got to the crib and took a minute to look at his sleeping princess. It was a miracle that she was still asleep so he decided to get ready for work first and get her ready afterwards. Carefully, as to not wake Harriet up he exited her room and went straight to the kitchen, where he was hoping April's coffee was waiting for him. When he got there, there was no coffee waiting for him and no April either, but a note from her saying that she didn't want to wake him and Harriet up and that she needed to go in earlier. Jackson frowned, he would have thought that she could've woken him up to tell him that because it wasn't like April to just leave. Sure they trusted each other with taking care of their daughter, but she wouldn't just leave before making sure Jackson was aware what's going on. But before jumping to any conclusions, he figured he would find her in the hospital and ask her what had happened. He tried to get his explosive emotions and angry outbursts under control with April, after all he felt bad for how he treated her before Montana.

He quickly got ready for work and put Maggie's mom files into his bag. He got his little bug dressed and into the car to go to Grey Sloan. After dropping Harriet off at the day care he quickly got down to the pit to find April to see how she was doing but he couldn't find her anywhere. Instead he saw Owen Hunt at the nurses' station.

"Hey, do you know where April is? Does she have a surgery or…?" He trailed off. "Kepner? She took a sick leave, she called in earlier today", said Owen looking confused. "Huh, yeah, right, thank you." Owen nodded and went away to the entrance to wait for new patients. Jackson took out his phone, ready to call April because he was starting to get worried, but his pager went off, signalling that Diane Pierce was here and ready for her consult.

The day was impossibly long. He got caught up in Pierce family drama, realised how bad Maggie's mom condition had spread and on top that there was no sign of April anywhere. After escorting Meredith to comfort Maggie, he was on his way to pick his daughter from the day care unit, when he felt his phone buzzing. It was April.

"Hey. I've been looking everywhere for you today." Jackson could hear April clearing her throat and sniffing. "Are you okay?"  
"Yeah, I'm so sorry for leaving so abruptly, I didn't want to risk spreading the germs on Harriet and you".

Jackson practically reached the day care. "So… where are you now, at home?"

"Yes", she said hesitantly, "I'm at our, my… I'm at the apartment. I decided to get better over here, so I won't get us all sick. So I was calling to say that and to ask you if I could face time with our nugget? I've missed her so incredibly much today". Jackson could tell how shaky her voice had become in a second thinking of the time she would have to spend apart from Harriet. "Of course. I'm entering the day care now. I'll call you right back."

* * *

"Hey, little bug. Have you missed your mommy and daddy today? I miss you so so much, my love."

Jackson could see that despite April trying to be cheerful for their daughter, she didn't feel well at all. And of course not being able to see her for the whole day was adding to that.

Harriet was cooing hearing April's voice and smiling. April continued looking at their daughter but started speaking to Jackson now.

"The day care staff are probably fed up with me," she snorted, "I tried asking them to send me a video of Harriet. I'm pretty sure they blocked my number."

Jackson chuckled."Thank you for doing this. I hate to think how many days I have to be alone without her"

"I can come over, you know", Jackson trailed off. April made a silly face at Harriet and turned her attention back to Jackson. "No, you certainly can not. Our daughter needs at least one healthy parent with her. And besides, you have patients, like Maggie's mom. How's she, by the way? How's Maggie doing?"

It would never not puzzle Jackson what an incredibly kind person April was. After all the crap he and others gave her about taking the position of the interim chief of general surgery, she was still worried about everyone at the hospital. "It's worse than we thought it would be. The cancer has metastasised."  
"Oh my God, I'm so sorry, Jackson. I will pray for them tonight."

"Thank you", said Jackson smiling, "Have you eaten anything?"

April made a face. "I have tried. I felt too sick to do it earlier. I ordered some soup, but it went cold and I don't feel like warming it up on the stove."

"You know you could always…"

"No, Jackson. I'm not microwaving it, you know how I feel about microwaves."

"Right", Jackson smiled shaking his head. "Are you sure you don't want me to come over though?"

"No, just", April sighed rubbing her forehead, "just go home, put our daughter to bed and kiss her cute little chubby cheeks goodnight, okay?" He could hear she was on the verge of tears and she didn't need to feel worse so Jackson said: "Okay, okay. I will. I'll call you tomorrow. Or you call me if you need anything, and I mean it, April, okay?"

"Yes, thank you. Goodnight, Jackson"

"Goodnight"

"Goodnight little Bug, I love you so much."

Jackson smiled and waited for April to hang up. He stood up holding Harriet in his arms and headed out of the day care. He felt so bad that April was alone, she couldn't have anyone over, all of their friends, the majority were doctors, no one would risk their health and the health of their patients and besides, everyone was still mad at her for taking the job, he felt incredibly guilty about that.

"Screw it," he said under his breath, Harriet babbled, "sorry, baby". He kissed her cheek. "Daddy shouldn't have cursed. But daddy thinks mommy shouldn't be alone right now, don't you think? Let's find out what your grandma's up to now…"

* * *

April was curled up on a sofa, watching or more like dozing off to one of her favourite movies, 'From Here to Eternity', when she thought she heard a knock at the door. Staying alone in the apartment was not her favourite thing at all, so she decided not to check who's behind the door and check if it's completely locked after the stranger leaves. The knocking happened again and she thought she had to check in case there was something happening in the building. She walked up to the door and asked who was there. "It's me," Jackson's familiar voice replied.

She sighed and opened the door. He was standing there, looking her over. She almost couldn't tell in that moment if it was a concerned doctor moment or a worried ex-husband-co-parent one. She also couldn't tell if she was feeling hot because of the high temperature or because she was flustered. She felt a bit annoyed, but also incredibly relaxed seeing him, checking up on her.

"Where's Harriet? Jackson, I told you, you shouldn't…"

"Can I come in anyway?", he sighed, tilting his head, "I brought hot soup", he lifted a bag with it for her to see. "Harriet is with my mom. She's grateful for bonding time with the two apparently greatest Averys, but also sends her get well soon wishes."

April, rolled her eyes at him but moved from the entrance so he could walk in.

"If I could, I would give you a lecture about compromising the health of your patients and would highly recommend not go to work tomorrow or run some tests to see if you're sick but I'm so hellishly tired, so I'm not going to do it".

"I do appreciate both," Jackson replied, putting the soup on the counter only to receive a pillow in his face.

"Very nice," Jackson said, throwing the pillow back to April. She caught it and hugged it, resting her chin on it.

"Well, I guess I was strong enough to do that," she said before falling back onto the sofa.

Jackson smiled to himself and looked at her again, all curled up in a ball, so small and cute. He was pouring the soup into a bowl for April, hoping it would make her feel even just a tiny bit better. He went to the couch where she was resting and set next to her. She straightened up a little and looked at the soup in his hands, then at him and his smile encouraging her to eat. She bit her inner cheek and took the soup from his hands.

"What are we watching?" April ate a couple of spoons of the soup before responding.

"'From Here to Eternity', it usually helps me to feel better, but I've been dozing off to it". April ate a little bit more. "Do you want to watch something else? I don't really care what to fall asleep to, I don't think I can pay attention to anything right now anyway", she sighed and tried to make herself more comfortable throwing a blanket on herself. Jackson helped her to spread it out better making sure she's warm. There was a little distance between them on the couch which Jackson wanted to reduce, but he didn't want to do anything that April wasn't comfortable with. It also felt weird to ask if he could move closer, he felt so out of place but desperate to be near her at the same time. While Jackson was having this debate in his head, April moved closer to him herself, resting her head on his shoulder. She looked up and whispered "Do you mind?" He looked at her sleepy face and smiled, "Of course not." He moved his arm so that he could have April closer to him and hug her with his hand, now April's cheek resting on his chest. She murmured "This is nice." "Mhmm" was all he could respond. Suddenly he remembered that he had a little present for April in his bag. April felt that he was moving so she looked up to see what was going on. She voiced the question.

"I have something for you, so I'm trying to reach it." He kept struggling as he didn't want to take his right arm of April.

"What is it?" She almost climbed on top of Jackson to see what he was trying to get.

"Okay, I had to stop at the store to buy some stuff for Harriet so she would be comfortable at mom's place, when I saw this. I know it's cheesy as hell but I thought you could use them as you don't feel well and need to stay warm." He took out the light blue fluffy socks with butterfly print on them out of his bag and smiled sheepishly.

"Oh my God, you are such a goof!" April gushed. She took the socks from his hands and took off the label. "They're so cute, Jackson.".She moved a little so she could put them on. She wiggled her toes in them making Jackson snort, before tucking her legs back under the blanket, leaning back into Jackson.

"I love them. Thank you, Jackson." She murmured against his chest. "No problem, babe." There was a pause for a couple of seconds before Jackson added "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have, I just…"

It was a weird territory for them. They had slept together and both of them weren't regretting what happened. The problem was they didn't know what they were, God knows, they were so many things. It wasn't clear what they could do or say, it was both awkward but so familiar, and it was very frustrating. The only thing they knew for sure, was that neither wanted to fight anymore, they had fought enough for a lifetime. But they had to talk, they knew that too.

"It's okay," April looked up to see Jackson's face, "Don't apologise. I love when you call me that. But it also makes me feel things that I'm not ready to feel right now, you know?" She cupped his cheek and he leaned into it. "I want to talk to you, about what happened and where we stand and what we want to do, what we want from this… But not now, maybe not even tomorrow. I just want to breathe for a second. We just went from cold to hot almost in an instant. You being mad at me for taking a job, then…"

"I'm sorry, April, I…" He tried to interrupt. She put a finger to his lips. "Shhh, I know, we will talk about everything. Let's just be for a second okay? Not mad, not angry, not frustrated and scared. Let's just breathe."

"Okay," he sighed pulling her tighter to his chest. "Just promise me that we're not going to avoid each other, like nothing's happened." He traced his finger up and down her arm. "I want to be with you, whatever it means. A friend, a partner, a person who puts our daughter to sleep together. I just want for this conversation, or a possibility for it, to exist and not cause more heartache. I want to make it right this time" Jackson nuzzled April's hair waiting for a response.

"Okay, that's all I want too." They continued relaxing on the couch. Some time later Jackson felt April shivering against him, definitely running a fever. She woke up, murmuring something about needing to get up and get to bed. Her movements were weak, so Jackson readily picked her up and carried her to the bedroom. He carefully settled her on the bed and got the covers under her to cover her up. He was about to leave when April caught his hand. "Where are you going?" Jackson squatted so he could tuck in a strand of hair behind April's ear. "I was just going to get you some water and medicine so you wouldn't need to get up. And then I was thinking I'd take the couch…" He smiled, caressing her face.

"No", April said, "no, you have to stay right here and be with me and keep me warm. You were the one who said something about not running away…" Jackson smiled and whispered "okay. I'll be right back." He got up to quickly get the water and medicine he promised April and changed into a t-shirt and some trousers he found in one of the boxes in the hall that had his name on it. When Jackson got back to the bedroom, April had already moved to the middle of the bed, freeing some space for him. He got underneath the covers and moved closer to April. She instantly snuggled as close as she could to him and sighed contently. He moved his hand up and down her back, rubbing it, hoping it would make her feel better and fall asleep soon.

"Just keep me warm," she whispered, "no space between us."

"I promise, no space." He kissed her forehead, feeling at home again for the first time since Montana.

* * *

 _ **Please let me know what you think. xx**_


End file.
